1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a medical system having an observation apparatus to which a medical apparatus for visualizing a shape, aspect or movement in a body to perform a predetermined examination can be connected.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various kinds of observation apparatuses to which a medical apparatus for visualizing a shape, aspect or movement in a body to perform a predetermined examination can be connected have been conventionally known. For example, an ultrasound observation apparatus to which an ultrasound probe, an electronic scanning type ultrasound endoscope or a mechanical scanning type ultrasound endoscope can be connected is known as a medical apparatus for performing an ultrasound examination using ultrasounds.
The ultrasound observation apparatus of this kind repeatedly transmits ultrasound pulses to living tissue from an ultrasound transducer of a connected ultrasound probe or an ultrasound endoscope, receives an echo signal of the ultrasound pulses reflected from the living tissue, generates information about an inside of a body as an ultrasound tomographic image, which is a visible image, and displays the ultrasound tomographic image on a display section such as a monitor.
Further, an ultrasound observation system has been also proposed recently in which a keyboard which carries out functions as an operation panel and is provided with an LCD (liquid crystal display) display section is connected to a body portion of the ultrasound observation apparatus of this kind to perform a predetermined operation.
On the other hand, in ultrasound endoscopic diagnosis, there has been a demand for a function of inputting, for example, names of surrounding organs or lymph nodes, to a diagnosis image displayed on a diagnosis monitor or the like connected to the ultrasound observation apparatus in order to identify a position of a region of interest.
In such an ultrasound observation system in which the keyboard as an operation panel is connected to the ultrasound operation apparatus as described above, a surgeon directly inputs a character string using character keys on the keyboard.
A technique has been conventionally known in which a list of a group of comments (a group of medical comments which are frequently inputted at time of diagnosis) registered with an ultrasound observation apparatus in advance is displayed on a diagnosis monitor (see FIG. 7), and an arbitrary comment on the diagnosis monitor is selected by selection means on an operation panel (keyboard), for example, a track ball (see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-330324).
Alternatively, a technique is also known in which a predetermined selection number is associated with each comment in the comment list displayed on the diagnosis monitor, and an arbitrary comment is selected by pressing the corresponding number key on the operation panel (keyboard).
Furthermore, a technique is also known in which the LCD display section of the operation panel is provided with a so-called touch panel function obtained by combining the LCD display section on the operation panel and a position input device, and a number button corresponding to the selection number associated with each comment in the comment list displayed on the diagnosis monitor is displayed so that an arbitrary comment is selected by touching the number button (see FIG. 8).
Further, in the techniques for selecting an arbitrary comment on the diagnosis monitor, a technique for changing a comment to be displayed, in response to switching to an observation mode (diagnosis region), an operation mode (for example, mechanical radial scanning, electronic radial scanning and electronic convex scanning) or the like so as to minimize the group of comments to be displayed on the diagnosis monitor, a technique enabling customization of displayed comments by a surgeon's preference, or the like is proposed.